Alec Baldwin's Rep Slams American Airlines 'Hypocrites'

Alec Baldwin's representative has branded American Airlines hypocrites for throwing the actor off a flight for using his cell phone.

American Airlines have been slammed as hypocrites for throwing Alec Baldwin off a flight.

The '30 Rock' actor was kicked off a flight at Los Angeles' LAX airport on Tuesday afternoon (06.12.11) after allegedly refusing to turn off his cell phone when asked to do so, but his representative insists the star was behaving no differently to other passengers on the plane.

Alec has also been defended by boxer Oscar De La Hoya, who was also on the flight and said the incident has been "blown out of proportion".

Oscar told 'Access Hollywood': "There wasn't no slamming of doors or nothing like that. I mean, it was, I think, blown out of proportion.

"I don't know him very well but he seemed like a good guy. He wanted to play his words game! I mean, that's all he wanted to do!"

Alex - who claimed he was removed from the flight for playing Scrabble-like game 'Words With Friends' on his iPad device while the plane was still at the gate - has now deleted his twitter page, but signed off with a photo captioned "let Alec play".

In their statement following the incident, American Airlines did not name Alec, 53, directly but said they had to deal with an "extremely rude" passenger.

They said: "This passenger declined to turn off his cell phone when asked to do so at the appropriate time. The passenger ultimately stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the plane's lavatory. He slammed the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed, even with the cockpit door closed and locked.

"They immediately contacted the Cabin Crew to check on the situation. The passenger was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language. Given the facts above, the passenger was removed from the flight and denied boarding."